[Space] Panspermia and the Campgaign

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by combatmedic

Well, only one intelligent species, by certain standards, and of which we know.

:)

True in that if some hypothetical civilization existed say 100 million years ago, there would be little sign of it now. And our entire lineage went from funny looking tree dwellers to us in a scant 5-8 million years.
But I would hazard to state that the possibility of such a species hiding in the fossil gaps is horrifically unlikely.
More than enough plausibility for even hard science fiction gaming purposes though.

[Nereidalbel]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

True in that if some hypothetical civilization existed say 100 million years ago, there would be little sign of it now. And our entire lineage went from funny looking tree dwellers to us in a scant 5-8 million years.
But I would hazard to state that the possibility of such a species hiding in the fossil gaps is horrifically unlikely.
More than enough plausibility for even hard science fiction gaming purposes though.

One species aboveground, and another hiding deep under the crust since ~65mya. See Doctor Who for this one ;)

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by whswhs

What standard of "unlikely" are you applying? I think you could just as well say we know of one life-bearing world, and that world has human-level sapience, which is a 100% probability. You have to define your sample space, and the sample space of planets about which we have substantial information is quite small.

Bill Stoddard

We only have one regardless of defined area. The defined area is highly arguable, but the one is not.
Sapience on par with parrots, great apes, and dolphins isn't what I mean when I write about human type intelligence.

I certainly hope to live long enough to definitively find life on some other planet. Even simple single celled life.

[Nereidalbel]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

I certainly hope to live long enough to definitively find life on some other planet. Even simple single celled life.

My money is still on either Europa or Encelodus. Have you seen The Europa Report via Discovery or Netflix?

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by Nereidalbel

One species aboveground, and another hiding deep under the crust since ~65mya. See Doctor Who for this one ;)

That look and act like humans in funny suits. They really should have reimagined them for the DW reboot.

As much as I adore the three from Victorian England and would watch the hell out of a spin off.

[Nereidalbel]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

That look and act like humans in funny suits. They really should have reimagined them for the DW reboot.

As much as I adore the three from Victorian England and would watch the hell out of a spin off.

To be fair, she DID spend a lot of time around humans. They were considerably more PEWPEW in the older series >>

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by Nereidalbel

My money is still on either Europa or Encelodus. Have you seen The Europa Report via Discovery or Netflix?

We can't say what the chances are of life there. But of the prospects in this system, Europa seems the best bet for life as we know it.

It would be funny if it turns out that our type of life is the rarity, and something absurd like hydrogen based life on gas giants is the norm.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by Nereidalbel

To be fair, she DID spend a lot of time around humans. They were considerably more PEWPEW in the older series >>

And very lizard like if I remember correctly, as dinosaurs endothermy and bird like nature wasn't known at the time.
I admit to coming around to the evidence a bit later than most. At least I was ahead of the curve with regards to Pluto. I didn't consider it a proper planet at age 7 in '81.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by jeff_wilson

That's not the whole story; pre-life Earth did not have a breathable atmosphere or surface water and you can see how Venus has a similar distance from the sun but a very different condition from earth's current one.

We owe our present concept of life to the great oxygen event. But I'm not sure it was necessary to prevent a runaway greenhouse event at Earth distances.
I thought surface water coalesced very early, but that it's hard to absolutely prove without known hydrates and oxides from later in the geological record. Blasted tectonics messing up the data. ;)

[Nereidalbel]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

We can't say what the chances are of life there. But of the prospects in this system, Europa seems the best bet for life as we know it.

It would be funny if it turns out that our type of life is the rarity, and something absurd like hydrogen based life on gas giants is the norm.

If not on Europa, the original Star Trek series may have had it right with silicon-based life in an anoxic environment.

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

We owe our present concept of life to the great oxygen event. But I'm not sure it was necessary to prevent a runaway greenhouse event at Earth distances.
I thought surface water coalesced very early, but that it's hard to absolutely prove without known hydrates and oxides from later in the geological record. Blasted tectonics messing up the data. ;)

What doomed Venus was the lack of a carbon cycle more than anything. On Earth, plate tectonics ensure that carbon is cycled through the mantle regardless of life, while Venus only experiences any sort of recycling in massive events every few hundred million years. Accelerate Venus' rotation enough to weaken the crust, and it may actually be habitable.